Project Space
instagram: @thebluelotus328
The Project Space is a viewing room where The Blue Lotus Foundation hosts some of our favourite artists. For the month of October, independent art historian, author, lecturer and curator, Andrew Spira shares his work.
ANDREW SPIRA
These works attempt to capture something of the temporality of pieces of music (I have sometimes painted them as musical scores, on lined staff paper, to be performed by musicians). They are also like texts, but they highlight the graphic potential of script, rather than its ability to communicate meaning. Perpetuating the theme of time passing, the works also resonate with chronological charts - diagrams of historical developments from the origins of civilisation to the present day. Finally, they are a homage and expression of gratitude to artists who have inspired me, especially Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich.
These works attempt to capture something of the temporality of pieces of music (I have sometimes painted them as musical scores, on lined staff paper, to be performed by musicians). They are also like texts, but they highlight the graphic potential of script, rather than its ability to communicate meaning. Perpetuating the theme of time passing, the works also resonate with chronological charts - diagrams of historical developments from the origins of civilisation to the present day. Finally, they are a homage and expression of gratitude to artists who have inspired me, especially Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich.
Andrew Spira is an independent art historian, author, lecturer and curator. For many years, he worked at the Temple Gallery (specialists in Byzantine and Russian icons), the Victoria and Albert Museum and Christie's Education, all in London. His work focuses on the interface between practical spirituality/psychology/epistemology and the history of art and culture.
His books include:
The Avant-Garde Icon: Russian Avant-Garde Art and the Icon Painting Tradition (Lund Humphries, 2008)
The Invention of the Self: Personal Identity in the Age of Art (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Simulated Selves: the Undoing of Personal Identity in the Modern World (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Foreshadowed: Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ and its Precursors (Forthcoming, Reaktion Books, 2022).
You can follow him on Instagram: androidspire. Website: www.andrewspira.com
His books include:
The Avant-Garde Icon: Russian Avant-Garde Art and the Icon Painting Tradition (Lund Humphries, 2008)
The Invention of the Self: Personal Identity in the Age of Art (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Simulated Selves: the Undoing of Personal Identity in the Modern World (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Foreshadowed: Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ and its Precursors (Forthcoming, Reaktion Books, 2022).
You can follow him on Instagram: androidspire. Website: www.andrewspira.com